HET 3000 lb winch

[73m819]

Today I pulled the little winch off BART and striped it down because there was a seep of gear oil at the drum/end housing, and the shiftier thingy was not moving.
1st --the shiftier thingy,
There are two O rings. one in the housing to keep water/dirt from getting in and oil from getting out, this O ring works as it should, the second O ring is another story, it is worthless, it is SUPPOSED to keep water/dirt out. It just fits over the shifting shaft, under the shifting thingy, there is NOTHING to keep it pressed against the housing, so water/dirt get between the housing and the upper part of the shifting shaft which in turn causes corrosion (rust). ( had to use a 3 lb to get the shifting shaft out). When I reinstalled the shifting shaft, I used a fat O ring (same oe dia. by about 3/8" tall) hoping this will take care of this issue.

You guys with HETS need to pull the shifting thingy and the crappy O ring and just flood the shifting shaft with some GOOD penetrating oil because other wise the winch needs to come apart to deal with this issue.

2nd -- The seep,
On each end of the drum there is a seal, this seal is a square cut O ring, about 3" in dia. and about 1/4" thick also the way the winch is designed, this area IS a dirt/water trap, the end housings keep everything together. HERE is the design issue, the winch has ONE tie rod from end housing to end housing, with the winch mounting being the other side that keeps things together. this is fine when the winch is new, but as soon as the mounting bolts are pulled, the end housing MOVE just a bit, being that this area IS a water/dirt trap, everything has a bit of corrosion, even under the O ring, as soon as a bit if movement the O ring seal is broken, but a new full seal can not be gotten because of the corrosion. What I am doing is adding two lower cross tie rods, this will allow the end housings to be squared up with the oe tie rod, instead of relaying on the winch mounting, also I am going to get fatter square cut O rings, these two upgrades should take care of the seep issue forever (I hope)

Sorry, no pictures, I will take some tomorrow

 

[73m819]

Here are the promised pictures.








You will notice the rust build up on the end plates around the drum hub, that is from wet sand that was packed in there, notice the rust on the sealing surface of both the end plates and on the drum end, again from wet packed sand. Being that there is only one tie rod to hold things together once the winch is removed from its mounting, it is very easy to get a bit of end plate movement and leaks, the winch now has two lower tie rods so the leak issue is no more, no matter how many times the winch is pulled from its mount.

I replaced the factory square cut O rings (worn) with a touch fatter O ring, this will give a snugger fit.